20 thoughts on “House of Grief – Baldur's Gate 3 Let's Play [Tactician] Pt. 51”
I’ve been waiting for the events from this episode for so long. Always a joy to see you play this game with such care. On your next playthrough, I think you will like freeing Shadowheart’s parents—more details of her tragic story is revealed.
In House of Grief, my evil, pro-Sharran Shadowheart got dialog choices that enabled her to convince 5 Sharrans to fight for us, making it a more even fight — 9 against 15 instead of 4 against 20. I don't know why you didn't get those dialog choices (1:13:05). Maybe because you were anti-Shar, but it shouldn't matter. Shadowheart was going to clean house whether she was pro- or anti-Shar.
In the evil playthrough, Shadowheart's encounter with her parents is even darker. I can't spoil it for you. I can only say that an evil Shadowheart will get Sharrans as allies, whereas the good Shadowheart gets Selunite allies, as you already have.
Shadowheart mentions her age here (2:21:37), which seems to indicate the long lifespans of her species. On the other hand, githyankis must have really short lifespans: the gith that was hatched from the egg you had stolen would be already full-grown if you found him in the Lodge.
A bit of my own play here, i actually used Karlach to pick up Viconia here. Second play through it wouldn’t let me for some reason, but – i tossed her body into a chasm lol. Shame what happened to Viconia but she was bound to turn dark eventually with her character – she was a playable companion in the previous game.
This is an emotion tearing game. My first playthough I was so upset over Karlach I did more than take a break, I uninstalled the game for 2weeks. It's still too hard to take, but I know now the moment I just have to step away and not witness it. It was hard to reconcile giving the game another chance, but, it's a big game with a lot of good moments. It's more my fault I guess, I'm so unflexable re some things, in many games, some paths are just not an option. My boys pick on me because in 10+ years of Skyrim I've never been a vampire, werewolf or dark brotherhood assassin. I've tried but always end up deleting. Conversely, I have no qualms about burning the fang boi, not pulling Gale from the sigil, or ending Wyll when he shows up hunting K, cuz I just don't like them. Shrug, I just can't wipe OOC knowledge re some chars from my replays.
Darkness can be negated with the Daylight spell, for you Gale probably has it. Void Bulbs are mini black holes, throw one into your wall of fire to suck in all nearby enemies into the wall of fire, I believe it shows you the circle of influence which is the zone it will suck your victims from, it's a circle about the size of a fireball. Also, Barbarian Rage nullifies a characters spell-casting (and other magic, which is why Barb doesn't multiclass with any MU well), one of which is Divine Smite, so against things which might be susceptible to radiant damage, you may want to use up your Divine Smites first and then Rage and Reckless Attack after. The HoG fight is a hard one, I thought you did great falling back and doing area control first time. I for sure had to redo this fight several times the first time through.
I'm curious, do you still think Shadowheart is a "fix me" character? I think she was, at some point, before you met her. But I also think that the fixing was already done by Shar herself, because of the memory loss. All Shadowheart needed to not be evil from that point on, was you not doing evil things. That's why I hoped you would trust her and not try to interfere in her interaction with the Nightsong. Because she wouldn't have killed the Nightsong anyway, even if you did nothing. Not that I did better on my first playthrough 😉
I love Shadowheart's storyline. I romanced her in my first playthrough and said she should let her parents go. I know it was the right thing to do but I still felt like shit after that. That is some good writing.
With that said, I do not know what happened with Viconia. This game is full of well written stuff, and out of the legacy characters Jaheira and Minsc are great but that is not Viconia. She was a really complex and well written character in BG2, even in her "evil" ending she went on and did amazing things. Her Waterdeep rewrite and her child abusing does not make any sense to someone who knows her from previous games. Larian just threw everything in the trash and retconed her to be a single-minded fanatic. Did they run out of time or didn't the writers like her?
Apparently Shadowheart is in her 40-ties, she only looks like 20 since she is a half-elf. Her parents were imprisoned and tortured for around 40 years then. Viconia is a legacy character, she was a part of Jaheira's group and companion in BG2, so people have mixed feelings about that she turned so evil in BG3.
Amarii, I appreciate your in-depth walkthrough of Baldur's Gate 3. Your quest for information as you adventure through this fantasy world truly makes the game come alive. Keep up the fantastic work!
Marco Creenn is an anagram of Necromancer. We think it refers to a particular NPC in Divinity: Original Sin 2, who tell us (in D:OS2) that he has crossed worlds and knows of Mindflayers. The description in the book you found fits him.
The house of grief fight is one of my favorite act 3 fights—it just feels really good to crowd control/otherwise deal with the huge horde of assholes, and I always relish obliterating Viconia. I usually make sure shadowheart lands a command: grovel on her towards the end. It’s also a thematic place, imo, to pop shadowheart’s divine intervention (although I usually need it more at the end of Wyll’s companion quest…)
I’m really looking forward to seeing you finish Asterion’s quest, as well as following up on the intelligence about Gortash (I’m assuming you found in the house of grief, I haven’t actually finished the video yet)
This ending to Shadowheart's personal question is so much sadder than the alternative. Don't get me wrong. Neither ending is ideal, but if this one bums you out you should definitely watch the other one.
Shar's VA really nails it imo. She makes her sound like such a petty and cruel god.
It sounds like Shar's almost about to laugh with most sentences torturing Shadowheart with the choice. To her she's nothing but another game piece in her eternal feud with Selune.
You can actually get 2 attribute points (Strength, Dex, Int, Char etc) of your choice with that mirror and it is a permanent buff (Shadowheart cannot get it) if you pass the check. You will get a debuff yet it's just a curse which can be cured.
I’ve been waiting for the events from this episode for so long. Always a joy to see you play this game with such care. On your next playthrough, I think you will like freeing Shadowheart’s parents—more details of her tragic story is revealed.
In House of Grief, my evil, pro-Sharran Shadowheart got dialog choices that enabled her to convince 5 Sharrans to fight for us, making it a more even fight — 9 against 15 instead of 4 against 20. I don't know why you didn't get those dialog choices (1:13:05). Maybe because you were anti-Shar, but it shouldn't matter. Shadowheart was going to clean house whether she was pro- or anti-Shar.
In the evil playthrough, Shadowheart's encounter with her parents is even darker. I can't spoil it for you. I can only say that an evil Shadowheart will get Sharrans as allies, whereas the good Shadowheart gets Selunite allies, as you already have.
Shadowheart mentions her age here (2:21:37), which seems to indicate the long lifespans of her species. On the other hand, githyankis must have really short lifespans: the gith that was hatched from the egg you had stolen would be already full-grown if you found him in the Lodge.
A bit of my own play here, i actually used Karlach to pick up Viconia here. Second play through it wouldn’t let me for some reason, but – i tossed her body into a chasm lol. Shame what happened to Viconia but she was bound to turn dark eventually with her character – she was a playable companion in the previous game.
Did you know Minsc is voice acted by Matt Mercer, DM of Critical Role?
This is an emotion tearing game. My first playthough I was so upset over Karlach I did more than take a break, I uninstalled the game for 2weeks. It's still too hard to take, but I know now the moment I just have to step away and not witness it. It was hard to reconcile giving the game another chance, but, it's a big game with a lot of good moments. It's more my fault I guess, I'm so unflexable re some things, in many games, some paths are just not an option. My boys pick on me because in 10+ years of Skyrim I've never been a vampire, werewolf or dark brotherhood assassin. I've tried but always end up deleting. Conversely, I have no qualms about burning the fang boi, not pulling Gale from the sigil, or ending Wyll when he shows up hunting K, cuz I just don't like them. Shrug, I just can't wipe OOC knowledge re some chars from my replays.
All those rare things in Jaheira's secret stash room are callbacks to BG1 + BG2.
Darkness can be negated with the Daylight spell, for you Gale probably has it. Void Bulbs are mini black holes, throw one into your wall of fire to suck in all nearby enemies into the wall of fire, I believe it shows you the circle of influence which is the zone it will suck your victims from, it's a circle about the size of a fireball. Also, Barbarian Rage nullifies a characters spell-casting (and other magic, which is why Barb doesn't multiclass with any MU well), one of which is Divine Smite, so against things which might be susceptible to radiant damage, you may want to use up your Divine Smites first and then Rage and Reckless Attack after. The HoG fight is a hard one, I thought you did great falling back and doing area control first time. I for sure had to redo this fight several times the first time through.
If you talk to the remaining follower of Shar using Shadowheart, the old friend gives her more memories of her past.
I'm curious, do you still think Shadowheart is a "fix me" character? I think she was, at some point, before you met her. But I also think that the fixing was already done by Shar herself, because of the memory loss. All Shadowheart needed to not be evil from that point on, was you not doing evil things. That's why I hoped you would trust her and not try to interfere in her interaction with the Nightsong. Because she wouldn't have killed the Nightsong anyway, even if you did nothing. Not that I did better on my first playthrough 😉
I love Shadowheart's storyline. I romanced her in my first playthrough and said she should let her parents go. I know it was the right thing to do but I still felt like shit after that. That is some good writing.
With that said, I do not know what happened with Viconia. This game is full of well written stuff, and out of the legacy characters Jaheira and Minsc are great but that is not Viconia. She was a really complex and well written character in BG2, even in her "evil" ending she went on and did amazing things. Her Waterdeep rewrite and her child abusing does not make any sense to someone who knows her from previous games. Larian just threw everything in the trash and retconed her to be a single-minded fanatic. Did they run out of time or didn't the writers like her?
Apparently Shadowheart is in her 40-ties, she only looks like 20 since she is a half-elf. Her parents were imprisoned and tortured for around 40 years then. Viconia is a legacy character, she was a part of Jaheira's group and companion in BG2, so people have mixed feelings about that she turned so evil in BG3.
Amarii, I appreciate your in-depth walkthrough of Baldur's Gate 3. Your quest for information as you adventure through this fantasy world truly makes the game come alive. Keep up the fantastic work!
Marco Creenn is an anagram of Necromancer. We think it refers to a particular NPC in Divinity: Original Sin 2, who tell us (in D:OS2) that he has crossed worlds and knows of Mindflayers. The description in the book you found fits him.
The house of grief fight is one of my favorite act 3 fights—it just feels really good to crowd control/otherwise deal with the huge horde of assholes, and I always relish obliterating Viconia. I usually make sure shadowheart lands a command: grovel on her towards the end. It’s also a thematic place, imo, to pop shadowheart’s divine intervention (although I usually need it more at the end of Wyll’s companion quest…)
I’m really looking forward to seeing you finish Asterion’s quest, as well as following up on the intelligence about Gortash (I’m assuming you found in the house of grief, I haven’t actually finished the video yet)
This ending to Shadowheart's personal question is so much sadder than the alternative. Don't get me wrong. Neither ending is ideal, but if this one bums you out you should definitely watch the other one.
Wow
Beating that on tactician blind and first try is quite impressive
Shar's VA really nails it imo. She makes her sound like such a petty and cruel god.
It sounds like Shar's almost about to laugh with most sentences torturing Shadowheart with the choice. To her she's nothing but another game piece in her eternal feud with Selune.
You can actually get 2 attribute points (Strength, Dex, Int, Char etc) of your choice with that mirror and it is a permanent buff (Shadowheart cannot get it) if you pass the check. You will get a debuff yet it's just a curse which can be cured.